This week we have been reading Locomotive by Brian Floca, which is about a steam train. Griff asked about what steam is, so we decided to find out. Johnny and Shotaro went and filled Ms Leah's kettle and we plugged it in to see what would happen. A short while later, we saw steam coming out of the kettle.

We had many theories about why that was. Ms Leah told us that if it wasn't an electric kettle and we could leave on the heat source, the kettle would eventually be empty. Siena: I know, because the water goes into the air.Shotaro: Water is a liquid, but it becomes...Griff: A gas.Aubrey: I know that. I learnt it in Little Scientists. Water when heated becomes a gas.

Ms Leah told us it is called evaporation. She asked us what we think would happen if the room became cool again. She told us you can sometimes see this on windows.

Lucy: Or on a water bottle if it's cold.Arywn: I can put my water bottle into the fridge for awhile, let it get cold and we can find out.Lucy: Look, it's closed, but the outside is wet.

Ms Leah explained that this process is called condensation.

Griff: Is that why it rains then? Does it get hot and then the water evaporates and goes up to like the clouds, and then it gets cold and there's condensation and it rains?Johnny: What about snow? Why does it snow sometimes?Frankie: I want to know how the weathermen can tell what the weather is going to be.Pieter: They just guess.Frankie: No, they don't!Pieter: Yes, they do. They just guess. Sometimes they say it is going to rain and it doesn't even rain. Sometimes they say it will be sunny, and it rains.Frankie: But they aren't guessing.Pieter: Yes, they are.

Today during our class meeting to look at our first question: Why does it rain? Pieter: We can watch a video on YouTube.​Griff: You can type in rain cycle.​

Shotaro: We already know that. You taught us about evaporation and condensation yesterday. But we didn't know that word. Precipitation. Johnny: Oh, so that's why it rains. Wait a minute? Is that why it snows some places too? Because the air there is really cold? Can we watch a video on snow tomorrow?​